Wandering Off Topic

[Vertigo Swirl]

“What do dogs have that we don't? For one thing, they possess up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, compared to about six million in us”.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/dogs-sense-of-smell/
Yet SIL writes this in his blog
“I have also checked on the ability of dogs, in general, to smell. Despite popular belief, scientific research shows dogs do NOT have a superior ability to smell than me.”

So either SIL is completely ill informed or he is a dog that has learned to use a computer to converse. 

Which is it?

[Robittybob1]

Yes, I am seriously suggesting that.  The one down side of cadaver dogs is that they can’t talk.  Humans can.  Most of them are also able to get down on their hands and knees if necessary to verify a dog alert and confirm the alert verbally rather than by barking. 
Is Vanessa Mae an expert in the human olfactory system?

What I think is that scientists would end up making a machine that analyses the volatile organic chemicals emanating from an area that has elicited a cadaver dog alert.  Are there specific signature molecules that define past presence of human cadaver?

[ShiningInLuz]

What do you make of this?

Dogs' sense of smell overpowers our own by orders of magnitude—it's 10,000 to 100,000 times as acute, scientists say. "Let's suppose they're just 10,000 times better," says James Walker, former director of the Sensory Research Institute at Florida State University, who, with several colleagues, came up with that jaw-dropping estimate during a rigorously designed, oft-cited study. "If you make the analogy to vision, what you and I can see at a third of a mile, a dog could see more than 3,000 miles away and still see as well."

Am I permitted to say cobblers?

[ShiningInLuz]

What I think is that scientists would end up making a machine that analyses the volatile organic chemicals emanating from an area that has elicited a cadaver dog alert.  Are there specific signature molecules that define past presence of human cadaver?

Body decomposition is alleged to go through 5 distinct stages of decomposition.  At each stage, different VOCs are produced.

Don't ask me for a cite.  It's in my backlog for a blog entry.  And I have more important articles to write before that one.

[Robittybob1]

Body decomposition is alleged to go through 5 distinct stages of decomposition.  At each stage, different VOCs are produced.

Don't ask me for a cite.  It's in my backlog for a blog entry.  And I have more important articles to write before that one.

So that would be helpful to the investigators.  They would not just get a dog alert but if you are right there might be different chemical profiles depending on the history of the cadaver at the site.  I.e. they might be able to tell if the cadaver was there soon after death or was it deposited there at a later stage of decomposition.

[barrier]

So that would be helpful to the investigators.  They would not just get a dog alert but if you are right there mighty be different chemical profiles depending on the history of the cadaver at the site.  I.e. they might be able to tell if the cadaver was there soon after death or was it deposited there at a later stage of decomposition.

Post mortems determine that don't they?

[Vertigo Swirl]

Am I permitted to say cobblers?

Yes, but it would require an “IMO” and it would be helpful if you would provide a link to the research which refutes the science.

[Vertigo Swirl]

Post mortems determine that don't they?

Only if there is a body.

[Vertigo Swirl]

Body decomposition is alleged to go through 5 distinct stages of decomposition.  At each stage, different VOCs are produced.

Don't ask me for a cite.  It's in my backlog for a blog entry.  And I have more important articles to write before that one.

Could one of your important blog entries expand upon your theory that dogs’ sense of smell is no better than humans, citing all the research which proves your point?  Putting down a food bowl for Goncalo (who sounds about as good at finding things as his namesake) doesn’t count.  Ta.

[barrier]

Only if there is a body.

What rob is suggesting needs a body.

[Vertigo Swirl]

What rob is suggesting needs a body.

Fair enough, but think how useful a cadaver human would be when there was no body.  “I can tell just by sniffing that the body was only here for a short while after death” for example.

[G-Unit]

Fair enough, but think how useful a cadaver human would be when there was no body.  “I can tell just by sniffing that the body was only here for a short while after death” for example.

Would they run avout on all fours with their noses close to the ground like the dogs do? That would make an interesting sight.

[Vertigo Swirl]

Would they run avout on all fours with their noses close to the ground like the dogs do? That would make an interesting sight.

No, they would let the dogs do that bit and then provide the final verification.  What’s your view on SIL’s contention that dogs have no better a sense of smell than humans?  You seem quite anti science so it would be interesting to get your input too.

[Miss Taken Identity]

What rob is suggesting needs a body.

And the whole point of having cadaver sniffers is to detect if a cadaver was present in a designated area.. No point in sniffing a dead body to confirm it is dead... lol

SIL I disagree with you on this point. Dogs have a better scent detection that humans- Sorry...

[Vertigo Swirl]

And the whole point of having cadaver sniffers is to detect if a cadaver was present in a designated area.. No point in sniffing a dead body to confirm it is dead... lol

SIL I disagree with you on this point. Dogs have a better scent detection that humans- Sorry...

It’s amazing that you find yourself needing to state the obvious but well done for doing so.  I look forward to SIL explaining why you are wrong, only he won’t, he’ll direct all his scorn and contempt at me for challenging his loopy views.